Texting teen plans to sue after falling down New York manhole
By Dave Parrack
Doing two things at once can be a tricky business. As is evidenced by the story of a New York teenager who fell down a manhole while texting on her cellphone. As is usually the case these days, her family is planning on suing the city.
We’ve all done it – received a text while we’re walking along, read it and written a reply. And there’s no doubting the fact that your sense of surroundings takes a battering while you write out a text message with your thumb. The odd look up to check where the next lamppost is really isn’t good enough.
For one teenager, it proved quite dangerous. According to FOX News, Alexa Longueira was walking down the path in a Staten Island residential block in order to get to the shops. She was accompanied by a friend but was texting on her phone at the time.
She suddenly disappeared from view, having fallen down an open manhole which was being worked on by The Department of Environmental Protection. The manhole was open to allow the DEP to flush the sewer through, and Longueira consequently fell five feet into raw sewage. A none too pleasant experience by anyone’s standards.
Longueira was helped out of the hole by an apologetic DEP worker, and was taken to hospital for minor injuries. The family has vowed to file a lawsuit over the incident because the manhole was left open, unattended, and with no warning signs or bollards preventing accidents.
The problem is that while the DEP is obviously at fault for its part in the accident, the girl has to also take some of the blame. Texting while walking may be something we all do from time to time but it’s clearly not the most sensible thing to do. The fact remains that if Longueira hadn’t been ensconced in using her phone at the time she encountered the open manhole, she wouldn’t have fallen down it.
There’s already legislation in some countries and U.S. states banning texting while driving. And rightly so. Should there also be legislation against texting while walking? Or at least a law stating that if you do choose to partake in the activity that you waive all rights to sue if an accident happens as a result.
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Entry was posted
on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
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Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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“Should there also be legislation against texting while walking?”
Basically, no. I don’t think so.
It’s illegal to drive while texting because travelling @ 30-80mph down a road in a car without looking where you’re going, is slightly different than a slow meander down the path while texting.
Obviously the point of she should’ve been paying more attention to where she was going still stands, but I know I walk and text a lot myself so I’d fall foul to this as well. But if there had been a barrier in the way she wouldn’t have fallen either.
If a blind person was walking down the street they might not realise there was a hole, despite having a walking stick or such .
July 16th, 2009
Not even her friend noticed there was no cover? Wow.
August 5th, 2009
In the video, she complained that the orange cones had been moved, saying that she would have seen those. Seen those but not a big hole in the sidewalk?
It’s a perfect example of a society that won’t take any responsibility for their own lack of good judgment. Scary that someday she’ll be texting as she drives…